Conventional cached storage volumes operating in a write-back mode check the cache for requested read data in response to each read request. If the cache is small compared with the storage volume, most read requests result in cache misses. Therefore, most read requests experience a latency in checking the cache and ultimately obtain the requested data from the storage volume due to the high percentage of cache misses. Little benefit is commonly gained by checking the cache in designs having less than a 1-2% cache-to-storage ratio.